Come What May
by FebWriter
Summary: Alternate universe story set in 1989 exploring what would have happened if Mac had survived his heart attack in 1989. How would he and Rachel cope with the heart attack and resulting surgery and recovery? Would Iris be able to mend fences with her beloved daddy eventually? What effect would this event have on the Cory family as a whole and as individuals?
1. Author's Note

_**Mac and Rachel Cory were the longest-running couple in Another World's entire history (and my second-favorite couple ever, behind Cass and Frankie). They met in 1974, when Rachel picked up her then 12-year-old son Jamie Frame at Mac's house, where Jamie had gone swimming with his best friend, Mac's grandson, Dennis Wheeler. From that unexpectedly auspicious first meeting came arguably Another World's greatest love story, which was the emotional center of the show for fifteen glorious years. Between Valentine's Day 1975 and June 1989, Mac and Rachel married three times, divorced twice, survived the wrath and first reign of terror of Carl Hutchins and several catastrophes and emergencies both man-made (Janice Frame trying to murder both Mac and Rachel; the explosion at the Cory Complex; the car accident that stole Rachel's eyesight for several months; Mac's plane crashing in the Canadian wilderness) and medical (Mac's stroke; Rachel's amnesia after being shot by Carl Hutchins), and built a blended family of five children (Iris, Sandy, Jamie, Amanda, and Matthew) that eventually grew to include four grandchildren (Sandy's daughter and son Maggie and Alex Cory; Jamie's son Steven Frame; and Amanda's daughter Allie Fowler). The vows they took at their third and final (and grandest) wedding in the summer of 1983 were the ones that stuck. That they loved each other always, and would until death parted them, was never in question, even from the earliest days of their relationship. But by 1983, they were both wise enough (especially Rachel) to know what it took to make their marriage last this time, and so that's finally what they did.**_

_**Another World lost its anchor, its moral and emotional center, and Rachel lost her soulmate, when Douglass Watson, who brought Mac Cory to life for those fifteen magnificent years, passed away unexpectedly while on vacation in Arizona on May 1, 1989. **_

_**At that time, the foundation was in place for the next big story involving Mac and Rachel: Mac's estrangement from his daughter Iris Wheeler after he and Rachel learned that Iris was the one behind the attempted hostile takeover of Cory Publishing in the summer of 1988, a few months before the character of Iris returned to Bay City after an eight-year absence from the canvas (and now played by Carmen Duncan, as the original Iris, Beverlee McKinsey, was busy playing Alexandra Spaulding on Guiding Light). In the early years of Mac and Rachel's relationship and throughout their first marriage, Iris, who was much closer to Rachel's age than Mac was, was insanely jealous of Rachel and despised her for marrying Iris's beloved daddy. Iris, in fact, did everything she could think of to break her father and Rachel up. But by 1988, Iris had realized that Rachel was in her daddy's life to stay, while Rachel, for her part, realized how happy Mac was to have his firstborn back in the family fold after so many years spent apart. Therefore, when Rachel uncovered the truth about Iris's role in the attempted hostile takeover of the company Mac built from the ground up, it didn't surprise her, but they had one hell of an argument about it, which ended when Rachel gave Iris a simple ultimatum: you tell Mac what you did, or I will. Iris, knowing Rachel well enough to know that her stepmother was not bluffing, did as Rachel asked...breaking Mac's heart in the process. Mac banished Iris from his life and fired her from Cory Publishing, wondering what kind of monster he had raised and voicing the thought that Rachel was right about Iris, that she had tried to warn him all these years about the kind of person Iris really was, but Mac had never believed it...until now. Iris desperately wanted to make it up to her father. She had only tried to initiate a hostile takeover of his company in the first place so that she could prove to him how much he needed her, and how much she cared about him. What Iris didn't realize was that, despite their physical distance in those eight years, her father had never stopped loving her, and that he didn't need her to swoop in and be his savior in business to earn that love. Even at the end there, Mac was bitterly disappointed, more deeply hurt than he had ever been in all of his sixty-some years, and very angry at Iris because of the way things had spiraled out of control, landing Mac himself behind bars for a short time in the summer of '88, but you knew that underneath all that, he did still love his wayward, self-destructive daughter. **_

_**Douglass Watson's death prevented the story of Iris's redemption in her father's eyes ever making it to air. I have often wondered, in the years since, how that story would have played out if Douglass Watson had not died when he did, how Iris would have made up to Mac for his ending up in jail, for Drew Marston, her cohort in the takeover attempt, going after Mac and Rachel's daughter Amanda at Iris's behest and actively working to bring down Mac in ways that Iris never wanted and certainly never signed off on. How long would it have taken Mac to forgive Iris? To let her back into the family home, and the family company? To be able to look at her without feeling disgust and disappointment above all else? And what, if any, role would Rachel, who had her own moments of disgusting, disappointing, deeply hurting Mac, and breaking his heart, have played in Mac and Iris's ultimate reconciliation? **_

_**This story will hopefully answer those questions. Obviously it's AU, because Mac does not die in this story. It covers several months in 1989. I'm planning to leave most of the rest of AW canon from 1989 alone (i.e., Jamie leaves Vicky after finding out she slept with Jake and he might be Steven's father, and all of the divorce, paternity test, custody arrangement drama plays out with them and Jake and Marley; Amanda can't stay away from Evan Bates, to the detriment of her marriage to Sam Fowler; Matt still spends most of his summer in New York City, rooming with Olivia Matthews in her father Russ's apartment and looking for his runaway girlfriend Josie Watts; Iris is dating the enigmatic Lucas, who shares quite the past, and eternal love, with Felicia Gallant, whose marriage to Mitch Blake is beginning to founder in the wake of Lucas's return and the revelation that the daughter they had as teenagers was not stillborn, as Felicia was told, but was taken from them at birth and put up for adoption by Felicia's stepfather's vindictive sister Abigail), but I will be changing a few things, some big (the presence of Sandy and his family, and Rachel's sister Nancy; I liked Nancy and adored Sandy Cory, played by Christopher Rich) and others small. This story, at its heart, is about Mac and Rachel, Rachel and Iris, and Mac and Iris, though the rest of the Cory family will play a big part, including those, like Sandy and Nancy, who were not actually on the canvas in 1989. A few other characters from both the present, as in 1989, and the past will be mentioned and/or make appearances as well, like Vicky, Donna and Michael, John Hudson, Russ Matthews, Felicia, Cass, Frankie, Alice Matthews Frame, and Larry and Clarice Ewing. **_

_**I would like to thank my friend and graphics guru Carol for the icon of Mac and Rachel that serves as the image attached to this story. **_

_**And now, on with "Come What May..."**_


	2. Anniversary Aftermath

"I still think we should stop by the hospital," Mackenzie Cory insisted stubbornly to his wife Rachel as, with one hand on her elbow and the other wrapped around her shoulders, he ushered her to the waiting town car, as Rachel's mother Ada Hobson worriedly trotted along beside the couple. "None of us have any idea how long you were unconscious in that boiler room."

"Mac is right," Ada said as she opened the back door of the town car.

But Rachel was nothing if not stubborn herself. "Russ already checked me out," she reminded her husband and mother, speaking of Russ Matthews, a family friend (and Rachel's first ex-husband, a million years ago, long before she and Mac had ever met) and doctor of several decades' experience. "He says I'm going to be fine, and I believe him." Mac reluctantly released his hold on Rachel so that she could get into the car. Ada followed her, sitting on the seat opposite Rachel. Mac slid in next to Rachel and closed the car door before bidding the driver to take them home, please.

"I never thought I'd say this," Ada said, "but thank God for Iris. Mac and I were turning that yacht upside down looking for you, Rachel, and no one else knew where you were. I don't know how Iris found you, but if we hadn't heard her screaming for help..." Ada trailed off, regretting too late that she had mentioned the forbidden word: Iris.

Mac angrily untied his bow tie with one hand, jerking the collar button on his wing collar shirt to unfasten it in such a hard manner that he nearly ripped it right off. His expression, which had been half worry and half exasperation at Rachel's continued refusals to stop by the ER despite Russ Matthews' medical all-clear, abruptly shuttered, as it now did every time his firstborn's name was mentioned.

Learning a couple of months earlier that Iris had been the mastermind behind the attempted hostile takeover of Cory Publishing the year before, a scant few months before she returned to Bay City after an eight-year absence and all of the chaos and trauma that it caused the whole family not only professionally but also personally, since Mac landed in jail after being framed for murder and his and Rachel's daughter Amanda was splashed all over the tabloids as having an affair with Drew Marston, Iris's cohort, had shattered Mac in a way that no hurt or loss suffered in his sixty-some years ever had before. Rachel had been the one to find concrete proof that Iris was Bennett Publishing, and she had confronted Iris, telling her in no uncertain terms that if she did not tell Mac herself, Rachel would. So Iris had told Mac that same night she argued with Rachel about it, and Mac's response had been complete and utter emotional devastation mixed with horror and dismay. For most of his relationship with Rachel, she had tried to tell him that Iris was not who he believed her to be, and over all those years, Mac had staunchly defended his daughter to the love of his life, insisting that she was not as bad as Rachel made her out to be. In the moment that Iris tearfully confessed to Mac that she had been "The Chief," the anonymous, unseen cutthroat behind the attempted hostile takeover of the company Mac had spent his life building from the ground up, and said she had done it because she needed her father to see that his life was better with her in it, and she needed to do something big and grand to prove how much she loved him and to earn his love, all of Mac's illusions about Iris were irrevocably destroyed, and he finally understood, for the first time, what Rachel had gone through over all the years with Iris, what she had been trying to tell him...what she had_** stopped** _trying to tell him when Iris had returned to the family fold the previous autumn after eight years away when Rachel had seen how happy Mac was to have Iris back in town and back at the company and back in his life on a daily basis. That very night, Mac had told Iris that the daughter he knew and loved was dead, that Iris didn't know how to love anyone but herself and didn't know the difference between right and wrong. "Right is when you get what you want, and wrong is when you don't," Mac had said sadly.

"Well, yes," Iris had admitted.

The evening had ended with Mac throwing Iris out of the family home and closing the door in her face. Rachel had found him in the foyer a short time later, kneeling at the front door, one hand clutching the doorknob in a death grip, his forehead resting against the door as tears poured from his eyes like a torrential rain, his heart in a million pieces. The love that Iris thought she'd had to earn from her father had never had to be earned. Even when they were on separate continents and went a year or more without anything but a five-minute phone conversation on Christmas Day in the way of communication, Mac had loved and cherished his firstborn child. He loved her still, though he would not admit that at this stage. But she had hurt him in a way he had never before believed she was capable of, and he couldn't stand the sight of her, the sound of her voice, or even the mere mention of her name. He had fired her from Cory Publishing the next morning, ordering her to pack up her things and leave before he called Security and giving her corner office to Amanda, and then he and Rachel dove into the preparations for the 25th anniversary celebration of Cory Publishing, which had taken place this evening on a yacht that had cruised around the bay for the evening. Iris had been there, escorted by one of her ex-husbands, Robert Delaney. Her grown son Dennis Wheeler had flown in for the occasion as well, and tried to talk to his grandfather about his mother, but Mac didn't want to hear one word about Iris.

Actually, Iris ended up being the least of the problems that occurred at the party that night. Felicia Gallant, one of Cory's star authors and a close personal friend of both Mac and Rachel, was absent from the festivities, seeing as how she was in jail for murdering Jason Frame, a crime that no one except Felicia herself truly believed she had committed. Then Gwen Frame had interrupted Mac's speech to drag the past out, accusing Rachel of stealing all of Gwen's brother-in-law Steve Frame's money in front of the entire ballroom of people. (Steve was the biological father of Rachel's firstborn child, her son Jamie.)

While Mac struggled to get everyone's attention back on his speech, Gwen stormed out after attempts by the Frame family members present to calm her down failed, and bided her time until after the speech, when she lured Rachel to the boiler room to confront her about killing her sister-in-law Janice Frame...in front of Janice's son Evan Bates, a Cory Publishing executive whom Rachel and Mac hadn't known was Janice's son when they hired him. Evan had initially come to town and taken a job at Cory Publishing with the intention of targeting Rachel and Mac, making them pay for killing his mother. But after getting to know the Corys, Evan realized that what Gwen and Willis Frame, Janice's sister-in-law and brother who raised Evan after Janice's death, had always told him about them didn't jibe with what he knew of them firsthand. Neither Evan nor Gwen had heard Rachel's side of the story, so Rachel told it to them in that boiler room: how Janice had rushed Mac to the altar in between his and Rachel's first divorce and second marriage, and then spent months poisoning him so that she could inherit his fortune after he died. Rachel figured out what Janice was doing, but by then Janice had whisked the seriously ill and increasingly weak Mac to St. Croix. Rachel, frantic to find them, teamed up with Janice's lover on the side, Mitch Blake, who was going to share Mac's fortune with Janice after she inherited it. Mitch knew all of Janice's plans, and her and Mac's whereabouts, but wouldn't give the information to Rachel unless she slept with him...so she did. Then Rachel and Mitch hurried to St. Croix, to the house where Janice and Mac were staying. The severely mentally unbalanced Janice accused Mitch of betraying her for Rachel, and when Mitch pleaded with her to drop the knife, she stabbed him in the stomach, dropping him to the cobblestone patio like a sack of wet cement. While Janice was stabbing Mitch, Rachel found the barely conscious Mac in the living room and managed to get him up on his feet and walk him out of the house to the patio, where she got him to a chaise lounge by the pool. As Mitch lay bleeding by the patio doors, and Mac lay on the chaise lounge, barely conscious, Janice, wielding her knife, came at Rachel, who let go of Mac to fight off Janice. The women tumbled into the swimming pool, grappling for the knife, and Rachel eluded Janice's desperate swipes with the weapon and finally stabbed Janice with her own knife, killing her in self-defense.

Gwen denounced Rachel's side of the story as lies and physically went after her, giving her a hard shove that caused her to hit her head on the boiler and pass out. At the same time, Gwen severed a gas hose with her high heel. The boiler room was filling with gas, and the panicked Gwen fled, accidentally letting the door, which locked from the outside,close behind her. Evan tried to revive Rachel but couldn't do it before he too was overcome by the gas fumes and passed out.

Iris had smelled the gas outside the boiler room, forced the door open and propped it open, and, seeing Evan and Rachel unconscious inside, began screaming for help as she rushed to Rachel's side. Iris's screams brought Mac, Ada, Amanda and her husband Sam Fowler, and Russ Matthews and his sister Alice Matthews Frame, both doctors, running. Mac swept Rachel up in his arms and carried her topside while Sam got Evan in a fireman's carry and brought him topside as well. The others followed them, Iris included, and while Russ tended to Rachel, Alice brought Evan around. Rachel and Evan were both told that they would be just fine. Gwen had disappeared without a trace, and Amanda, Ada, and Mac were in agreement that they wanted Gwen found and brought up on charges for attacking Rachel and knocking her out and leaving her in a boiler room that was rapidly filling with gas.

Mac had one short sentence to say to Iris: "Thank you for saving Rachel's life." Then he didn't even look at her while Rachel, Ada, and Amanda thanked her, and he couldn't get Rachel and Ada out of there fast enough. Deep down he was grateful to Iris for saving Rachel's life, especially given the past history between the two women, but he just was not ready to forgive her yet, not while he was still absorbing the fact that she had done this terrible thing to him at all and tried to pass it off in the name of love.

So now they were on their way home after the overall disastrous night.

"I'm sorry, Mac," Ada said contritely, cursing herself for mentioning Iris, after everything else that had happened tonight. There was more that Rachel and Mac didn't know. They were both too preoccupied with Gwen's outburst, Iris's presence, and Felicia's absence to notice the tension radiating off of Jamie and Vicky, who were never actually together the whole night. Vicky had not been part of the family portrait they had all posed for (neither had Iris, which surprised no one, although she had been off to the side, watching in misery), and while Ada had not spoken to Vicky, Matthew had and Matthew had confided to his grandmother that Vicky was really upset about some big blowout fight she'd had with Jamie. Ada had finally corralled Jamie alone during the time she and Mac were searching for Rachel. After telling his grandmother that he had already said good night to his mother and Mac, he admitted to a big fight with Vicky, and Ada astutely noticed that Jamie had been in another kind of fight as well. He said he'd crossed paths with Jake McKinnon but he was, frankly, too tired to talk about the whole thing tonight and there were a few more things he needed to get straight in his head anyway before he talked about it, though he had kissed Ada's cheek and promised her that he would come and see her the next day sometime. Jamie and Ada had always had a special relationship, since Ada and Rachel had been the two constants in Jamie's life from birth onward, Mac not having come along until Jamie was twelve years old, and since Jamie was Ada's only grandchild until Amanda's birth in his late teens. She was sure that she could get the whole story from Jamie the next day or shortly thereafter, although she had her own suspicions about what had caused Jamie's argument with Vicky and why he had then physically scuffled with Jake McKinnon, who had been working the party as a bartender and had disappeared one hour into the evening's festivities. At least Ada now knew why Jake had taken a powder.

But Mac and Rachel had enough to deal with tonight. She wouldn't say a word to them about the turmoil in Jamie's life. It was Jamie's place to tell them anyway.

"It's all right, Ada," Mac assured his mother-in-law and dearest friend. "It's just been a very long, very bad night." He looked at Rachel then. "You're sure you don't want to just stop by the hospital?"

"Yes, I'm sure," Rachel replied. She leaned her head back against the headrest of her seat and sighed. "What a night."

"Not at all what I was expecting," Mac said ruefully. He leaned his head back against his own headrest now and reached for Rachel's hand, threading his fingers through hers. "Rachel, for the 30th anniversary in 1994, let's just take the board members out to a nice dinner."

"I know of a restaurant you can rent with a terrific menu. Anything you want, and reasonable rates all the way around," Ada said, referring to her own restaurant, The Paradise Café, which she managed. "And if The Paradise isn't what you're looking for, I know Felicia will be glad to let you have it at TOPS." TOPS was the fanciest restaurant in Bay City and was owned and managed by Felicia Gallant.

"Oh, speaking of Felicia," Mac said, suddenly remembering. "I bumped into Jason's niece, Frankie Frame, that private investigator, at the party. She's convinced now that Felicia didn't kill Jason and is working to prove that. She asked me if I'd seen Cass. She seemed very anxious to share some lead she'd found with him, something having to do with a pair of earrings, apparently. I hope she found him. The last I saw of him, he and Nicole were sitting with Donna and Michael."

"Finally, some good news," Rachel rejoiced. "I wonder if this means Cass and Nicole will have to postpone their wedding? They're supposed to get married tomorrow. I know Cass really wants Felicia there."

Mac looked chagrined. "I completely forgot that Cass's wedding is tomorrow," he said.

"If the wedding is still tomorrow, I'm sure Cass will understand if you two send your regrets," Ada told them. "I'm going."

"Yes, and I'm sure Vicky and Jamie will be there to represent the family, since Nicole is Vicky's aunt," Rachel added. Ada wasn't so sure about that, but she said nothing.

The town car pulled to a stop. They had arrived at the Cory Mansion. Mac got out first, and helped first Rachel, then Ada out of the car. He wearily unlocked the front door, and then locked up when they were all inside. Rachel and Mac bid good night to Ada and headed for their bedroom to get ready for bed. When they had changed into their pajamas and gotten into bed, Mac wearily rested his head on Rachel's chest, reassured by feeling her heart beating and her chest rising and falling with each breath she took, and he let out the breath he'd been unconsciously holding since the second he'd seen Rachel unconscious in Iris's lap on the floor of that dirty boiler room. He wrapped his arms around her, holding onto her tightly, and closed his eyes, trying to make all the chaos and stress of the anniversary party dissipate by focusing on Rachel's heartbeat and her breathing.

Rachel held onto Mac, running the fingers of one hand through his hair and feeling him start to relax. The night had been much more stressful than either of them had anticipated, and this was coming on the heels of one crisis after another: first Amanda had been kidnapped by Dustin Trent, then Evan had been shot saving her. Felicia went to prison for Jason Frame's murder. They had learned that Iris was behind the takeover attempt last year. And pulling together the anniversary party had almost become another full-time job.

They were silent for several minutes. Mac's breathing had slowed and now matched hers, and Rachel thought he was asleep. But he broke the silence to say, "You know, I'm sure Ada's right. Cass would understand if we sent our regrets and didn't attend his and Nicole's wedding tomorrow. And like you said, Jamie and Vicky will be there, and Ada's going. They can represent the family."

"Sleeping in does sound great," Rachel agreed.

Mac sat up then, looking at Rachel intently in the dim light of their bedroom, remaining in the circle of her arms as he brought one hand up to gently stroke her cheek. "Darling, for the last several months, it's been one thing after another. We survived the anniversary party. Amanda and Evan can keep things going at Cory Publishing, and Ada can hold the fort here at home. Jamie, Amanda, and Matthew are all more or less settled. I know Matthew is having problems with Josie, but they're going to have to be the ones to work it out for themselves. Why don't we get away, just the two of us? It's been such a long time since we've had a vacation."

"You mean just pack our bags, book a flight, and leave?" Rachel asked, surprised. "Where would we go?"

"Anywhere we want," Mac replied. "All I want, all I need, is to be alone with you, getting a respite from everything here in Bay City for a little while."

Rachel lay back against the pillows, pulling Mac closer, and he shifted in her arms, moving to lie on top of her beneath the covers. "Let's go, then," she said softly. "First thing in the morning."

"We could go to Maine," Mac suggested. "To that inn we discovered years ago on the coast."

"The one with all the great fishing," Rachel recalled wryly. Smiling, she framed Mac's face in her hands and leaned in for a quick kiss, the barest brush of her lips against his, before pulling back to look into his eyes once more. "I'll even go fishing with you this time."

Mac smiled his first genuine smile of the whole night. "You in hip waders, a khaki vest, and a fisherman's hat with fish hooks all over it is a very appealing thought." He bent his head to kiss his way down her neck, slipping the straps of her nightgown down her shoulders. Rachel let her hands move up to Mac's chest, her fingers making quick work of the buttons on his pajama top. When she had slipped the last button free from its buttonhole, she tugged the garment off of Mac and tossed it to the floor beside the bed, her hands now stroking up and down his naked back. And then Mac and Rachel were making love, happily getting lost in each other and forgetting everything that had happened before this moment.

Nestled in each other's arms in the afterglow, Mac kissed and nuzzled the top of Rachel's head and she was the one listening to his heartbeat now, her head on his chest. "It'll be good to get away, just the two of us," Rachel said.

Mac gently tipped her chin up. "I can't wait," he replied softly before giving her a long, slow, deep kiss good night.


	3. Nightmarish End to a Perfect Day

Mac and Rachel left for Maine the next morning, after a flurry of early phone calls to Jamie, Amanda, and Evan Bates at the office, and after breaking the news to Ada and Matthew over breakfast. They packed lightly, and Mac secured a reservation at the inn they had discovered years ago, and then they rushed to the airport to catch their flight.

As soon as they arrived and checked in, Rachel headed into the bathroom with her suitcase while Mac unpacked his. He was surprised when she emerged from the bathroom in blue jeans, hiking boots, one of his old plaid flannel shirts with a khaki fishing vest over it, a khaki fisherman's hat adorned with fishing flies perched atop her raven-colored curls. "Hand me a fishing pole and point me in the direction of the river!" Rachel exclaimed enthusiastically.

Mac just smiled. "I know you don't really like fishing, Rachel," he said, closing the drawer where he had just finished putting the last of his clothes.

"Maybe not," she admitted, crossing the room to put her arms around his neck. "But I love **you, **and you love fishing, and it does seem like it would be relaxing, standing in a river, surrounded by nature, no one around for miles but the two of us. I look forward to finding out firsthand just how relaxing."

Unable to resist, given how cute she looked, Mac kissed Rachel's nose. "Let me just change, and we'll head out," he replied.

A few minutes later, with Mac similarly attired as Rachel, they headed out to go fly fishing in the river.

They bought hip waders at the local bait shop and were soon ensconced in a secluded spot mid-river, complete with a picnic lunch provided by their hotel, and declared a moratorium on all stressful subjects left back in Bay City, and had a wonderful afternoon.

Rachel was a complete novice as a fisherman, and she was gratified, as the afternoon wore on, to see Mac genuinely smiling as he taught her how to bait her hook and cast her line, and truly, honestly laughing when she got tangled up in her line at one point. The weight he had been carrying for the past few months was gradually melting away, and he was more like his old self, like the way he was before he learned of Iris's betrayal, than Rachel had seen him in what felt like an eternity.

"I'm beginning to see why you enjoy this so much," Rachel said as they picnicked on the riverbank. "No crowds, very little noise...it's very relaxing."

"Yes, it is," Mac replied before taking a sip of lemonade. "I've taken Jamie and Matthew fishing. Amanda wanted no part of it after one trip. Iris went fishing with me until she discovered boys." His smile faded before he shook off the encroaching melancholy and stretched out on the picnic blanket, resting his weight on his elbows. "After all these years, I've finally got you on a fishing trip, and you really like it."

"I really do," Rachel admitted with a smile.

"When we get home, we'll have to take a weekend up at the cabin this summer and do some fishing up there. The lake there is full of trout," Mac said.

"Maybe for the 4th of July," Rachel said. "I'm sure the children will all have plans, and Mom will probably go and watch the fireworks with Sharkey." Sidney Sugarman, Ada's boyfriend before World War II, had come back into her life recently all these decades later, after his family was grown and gone and his wife had passed away, and he had become a chef after the war, owning several restaurants. He was still semi-retired but helped Ada with the menus at The Paradise Café, and they were keeping steady company, as Ada put it, though neither of them was looking to get married again.

"We've been so busy with the company and the family and one crisis after another that we haven't spent as much time together as we wanted to, have we?" Mac mused.

"Well, that's all changing," Rachel said, moving across the blanket to stretch out beside Mac. "Summer is just beginning. Cory Publishing is doing well. The kids are doing well...except for Matthew's relationship with Josie, but they'll have to work that all out, or not. Mom's healthy and happy. We have each other. We're very blessed. This is our time, Mac."

"Then let's make the most of it," Mac replied softly, stroking Rachel's cheek softly before pulling her down to him in an ardent kiss.

Later that afternoon, Rachel caught her very first fish, a striped bass. Mac splashed over to stand behind Rachel and help her reel the fish in. "Look at that, look at that!" Rachel exclaimed when the fish broke the water, furiously wriggling on the line she held aloft, Mac's hands over hers on the rod.

"You did it!" Mac exclaimed proudly.

"**We** did it," Rachel corrected him as they removed the fish from the line.

"The perfect end to the perfect afternoon of fishing," Mac said as they packed up to return to the hotel.

After showering and changing their clothes, they strolled along the main street of the small town, window shopping, until it started to rain, one of those sudden summer showers that spring up out of nowhere, drenching everything for a short time before the rain stops as suddenly as it began and the clouds dissipate behind the force of the sun returning after the storm. Before they got too wet, they spotted the Quoddy Bay Lobster restaurant and hurried in there to have dinner. The atmosphere was romantic, with soft lighting coming from walls sconces and lit candles at every table, the lobster was good and the wine was better.

When they had finished their dinners, Mac topped off both of their wine glasses, then lifted his own glass. Rachel couldn't hold back her smile as she lifted her own glass, knowing what was coming (a patented Mac Cory toast) and yet not knowing what was coming (because it was rare that Mac toasted only her, usually leaving his toasts for holidays and family gatherings).

"Twenty-five years," Mac began. "It seems that it's gone by in the blink of an eye. The one constant in those twenty-five years, Rachel, has been you. Even when we were apart...even when we were bitterly fighting, or trying to convince ourselves that we weren't irretrievably in love with one another...my life was forever changed the day you walked onto the patio of my house twenty-five years ago to pick Jamie up from an afternoon of swimming with Dennis, and he formally introduced me to his mother. I knew that I was waiting for something, and when we met, I knew that what I'd been waiting for, darling, was you. In this past quarter century, we have loved and we have lost, we have fought and made up, we have weathered many storms and crises, and I have loved you through it all, Rachel, and I will love you beyond eternity." His eyes sparkled, his gaze filled with love and admiration, and Rachel felt herself tearing up as Mac continued, "To you, Rachel...the best wife, the best mother, the best grandmother, the best partner, the best friend, the best novice fisherman..." His eyes twinkled at this, and Rachel's smile grew a bit wider. "...the greatest woman I have ever known, and the woman with whom I am privileged to share my life. And to the next twenty-five years. With you by my side, I can't wait to see what they bring." He gently touched his wineglass to hers now, and after they had each taken a sip to seal the toast, Mac leaned across the table, and Rachel met him in the middle in a sweet kiss of love and promise.

The rain had long since stopped by the time they left the restaurant and ambled back to their hotel arm in arm. Halfway back there, though, Mac began feeling pain in his chest. He didn't even mention it to Rachel, figuring it was just heartburn and that having a bicarbonate of soda delivered from room service would take care of it.

But by the time they were back in their room, Mac felt completely drained of energy. He sat down heavily on the edge of the bed, absently rubbing his chest, and reached for the phone to have that bicarbonate of soda sent up while Rachel went into the bathroom. When she returned a few minutes later, Mac was still rubbing his chest, no longer absently now, as the pain had intensified greatly. He was also sweating profusely, the blue-and-white-striped short-sleeved button-down shirt he wore nearly soaked to his skin, and not only did he have the pains in his chest, he also felt as if he had a heavy weight sitting on his chest. His breathing was erratic, and very labored.

Rachel exited the bathroom just as the knock came at the door, and the bellman called out, "Room service!"

Out of the corner of her eye, she saw Mac slumping on the edge of the bed, heard his labored breathing, and rushed to her husband's side. "Mac?" she asked anxiously, worriedly. His head was bowed, but he lifted his head to meet Rachel's worried gaze. Rachel was struck so deeply by the look on Mac's face, a look of intense pain mingled with intense fear, that she dropped to her knees before him, touching his face. "Mac?" she cried, her eyes wide with her own intense fear for him.

"Get...help..." Mac rasped. Rachel saw then that he was clutching his chest with his left hand. "Hea-heart attack."

"Don't try to talk, darling!" Rachel exclaimed. "Save your strength."

The bellman opened the door then, not having been admitted upon announcing his presence. Rachel looked over Mac's shoulder at the young man, probably not much older than Matthew, holding a tray containing the makings of bicarbonate of soda, and she shouted at him, "Call an ambulance! My husband is having a heart attack!"


	4. Adrift and Waiting

"...so now, we're just waiting on the results of the paternity test," Jamie concluded, idly shifting his glass full of melting ice cubes and less than an inch of iced tea in the bottom back and forth from one hand to the other as he finished telling Ada the truth about why he brawled with Jake at the Cory Publishing anniversary party, and why Vicky was so upset that night.

Ada wasn't surprised by this news, but then, not much that happened could shock Ada Hobson, after raising Rachel, and Rachel's sister, Ada's late-in-life daughter Nancy McGowan, and helping to raise Jamie, Amanda, and Matthew, plus being a stepmother, through her marriage to the late Charley Hobson, to his three children, sons Leigh and Denny (Leigh was a college hockey coach in upstate New York; Denny was serving time in prison for murdering Loretta Shea) and daughter Clarice, who lived in Texas with her husband Larry Ewing and their children Cory and Jeanne. "And your marriage?" Ada asked, cutting right to the heart of the matter.

Jamie exhaled a deep sigh, then said, "Over. Not formally, but...well, Grandma, I only married Vicky because I got her pregnant. Or I thought I got her pregnant. Now I don't even know. And you can't build a marriage on sex, or even a shared child. I hope and pray that Steven really is my son. But I can never trust Vicky again. Right now, I can hardly even look at her. I certainly can't be married to her anymore." He shifted in his chair and set his glass on the coaster on the end table beside him, rubbing at the back of his neck. "Old Jamie blew it again. Divorce number three. After the paternity test results come in, I'll call Cass and officially file for divorce and custody...if I have a case for custody."

"You didn't blow anything," Ada said sternly. "You just haven't found the right woman for you yet."

Jamie laughed mirthlessly. "Not for lack of trying. Or lack of divorces. Although Cecile isn't right for anybody. I pity the people of Tanquir, having her for their queen." Jamie was referring to his second wife, Cecile dePoulignac, a woman who very nearly defied description and who had cut quite a swath through Bay City in her day, but was mercifully now the problem of the island country of Tanquir, a protectorate in the Mediterranean, since she was their queen after marrying the king and his death shortly thereafter. Everyone in Bay City who knew Cecile figured she had something to do with the king's demise, but since it didn't affect them, they were happy to leave well enough alone.

"One of these days, you will find a woman who deserves you," Ada assured Jamie. "And she'll make a wonderful wife and partner to you, and a wonderful stepmother to Stevie."

"If Steven is my son," Jamie said glumly. "He might be Jake's son, Grandma."

Before Ada could console or reassure Jamie further, Matthew blew into the house slamming the door behind him. "Grandma?" he called.

"In here!" Ada called as Matthew entered the living room.

"I know where Josie is!" Matthew exclaimed triumphantly. "Well, I sort of know where she is. She's in New York. I just have to find her."

"New York State or New York City?" Jamie asked, eager for a subject change.

"New York City," Matthew replied as he restlessly roamed the living room.

Ada craned her neck so she could keep her eyes on her youngest grandson. "You are aware how many millions of people are in New York City, aren't you?" she asked.

"Yes, but I have to do this. I have to find her, Grandma," Matthew insisted. "At least she's not there alone. She's with Reuben Lawrence. They're friends. And I know that Reuben will look out for her. And Russ Matthews said I can stay at his apartment in the city while I'm looking for Josie, so that's good. I just came from the farm, telling Mrs. Watts and Dr. Hudson that I found out where Josie is and that I'm going to get her and bring her home." Mrs. Watts was Josie's mother Sharlene, and Dr. Hudson, John Hudson, was her boyfriend...and, ironically, Vicky's uncle.

Before either Ada or Jamie could say anything further, the phone rang. Matthew was closest to it, so he picked it up. "Hello?"

"Matthew?"

"Mom?" Matt asked. Rachel didn't sound good. She sounded numb, like she'd had a severe shock. "Mom, what's wrong?"

"Wrong? Something's wrong?" Ada asked, jumping to her feet. Jamie gained his feet as well and both of them looked on anxiously.

"Mac," Rachel said on a sob. Several silent seconds ticked by as Rachel regained control of herself. Matt cut a worried look at his grandmother and brother, then put Rachel on speakerphone.

"Mom, we're here," Matt said firmly. "Me and Grandma and Jamie. What about Mac? What's happened?"

"He...he's had a heart attack," Rachel said, choking back another sob. "It's bad."

Ada, Matthew, and Jamie all three looked stricken. "How bad?" Jamie asked, jumping into doctor mode.

"He was in so much pain," Rachel said numbly. "And so scared. He couldn't breathe."

"Rachel!" Ada snapped. "Rachel, where are you?"

"MaineGeneral Medical Center in Augusta," Rachel said. "It...The hospital in Eastport couldn't..." Her head was spinning, and she was terrified for Mac and worried about him and struggling to pull herself back together when the rest of their family was halfway across the country.

"We're coming, Mom," Jamie said. "Matthew and I. We'll get there as soon as we can."

"Rachel," Ada said. "I'll be there too."

"No," Rachel said. "No, Mom. Someone has to stay with Allie and Steven. And Amanda...we have to tell Amanda. And Sandy."

Ada was about to ask about Iris, but decided against it. "We'll be there in a few hours, Mom," Matt said.

"I'll tell Amanda," Ada said. She would also call Nancy in Phoenix, and Felicia, who was out of prison thanks to Frankie Frame, and Cass, and Clarice and Larry. If Amanda and Sam followed Jamie and Matthew to Maine, then Ada would indeed keep Allie for them. Steven was upstairs, sound asleep in the nursery Mac and Rachel had set up for him and Allie. If Ada needed to take him over to Vicky's, or to Michael and Donna's, she would, but Jake McKinnon would get near that boy over her dead body. She inwardly winced at her own metaphor.

"Have the doctors talked to you yet, Mom?" Jamie asked urgently.

"They're still doing tests," Rachel said. "I'm sorry, Jamie, I can't tell you anything medically yet because I don't know myself. But it was bad. It was very bad."

"We're on our way, Mom," Jamie said. "We'll be there just as soon as we can. In the meantime, I want you to call Sandy, okay? And maybe you could call Evan Bates so he can be prepared for what this means for the company, okay? Can you do that?"

"Yes," Rachel said determinedly, responding to having set tasks. "Yes, Jamie, I can do that."

Ada, realizing what Jamie was doing, added, "And you should call Felicia too. She's out of prison. Frankie's lead panned out and revealed the real killer, and Cass got Felicia out this morning. She's home. She's free."

"Felicia's out of prison?" Rachel asked, finally sounding something other than numb. "Mac and I never believed that she killed Jason. Or if she did, it was an accident. Who killed him?"

"Nicole Love," Ada said. "Needless to say, the wedding is off."

"Poor Cass," Rachel said. "But yes, I'll call Felicia. And I guess I should try to call Cass. After I call Sandy...and Evan. But Amanda..."

"I'll tell Amanda," Ada said. "You get Sandy on the phone, and Felicia. And Evan. Right?"

"Right," Rachel said tearfully.

"We'll see you soon, Mom," Matt said. "I love you."

"I love you too," Jamie added.

"I love you too," Ada chimed in. "And Mac. If you get to see Mac before the boys get there, you give him all our love."

"I will," Rachel promised. "I will. And Jamie, Matthew...Hurry. Please hurry."

"We will, Mom," Jamie promised.

After they hung up from Rachel, Jamie called Michael Hudson, not spilling one word about his problems with Vicky or Steven's paternity being in doubt, and had secured the use of Michael's private jet for the flight to Maine in two minutes. Matthew grabbed the cordless phone, called Sharlene and John at the farm to tell them that he wouldn't be going to New York in the morning after all because of Mac's heart attack, and promised to let them know how Mac was doing and when he could get to New York. Then he rushed upstairs and threw some clothes in a suitcase, grabbing a second suitcase and packing a few things for Jamie from the clothes that he had left at the mansion.

Meanwhile, Jamie called Vicky to tell her what had happened and that he was headed to Maine to be with Rachel and Mac, and that his grandmother had Steven, but Vicky was allowed to see him and have him with either herself, Bridget, Donna and Michael, or Marley, if Marley could handle being around Steven, but under no circumstances was Jake allowed anywhere near Steven. Vicky, blindsided by the news of Mac's heart attack on top of the turmoil in her life regarding Steven's paternity and the precarious state of her and Jamie's marriage, instantly agreed to Jamie's terms, and agreed to leave Steven with Ada at the Cory Mansion for the night. Jamie then kissed the sleeping Steven goodbye, he and Matthew both hugged and kissed Ada goodbye, and then they were off to the airport and onto Michael Hudson's private jet. They were bound for Maine within half an hour of Rachel's phone call.

Ada tried and failed to reach Amanda by phone, not knowing that the phone was off the hook because first Sam and Amanda had had a blowout argument about Evan Bates and Amanda's obvious attraction to him, and then, after they awakened Allie with their yelling, it took forever to get her calmed down, and when she was asleep again, Sam had made a bed for himself on the floor beside Allie's crib and told Amanda that they were done arguing about this for tonight and in front of Allie. But Ada succeeded in reaching her daughter Nancy, who was a nurse in Phoenix, and before the end of the phone call, Nancy was looking up the number for the airlines to book herself the first flight to Augusta, Maine, to be there for her sister and brother-in-law.

In Maine, while Rachel waited for the results of Mac's tests, and for the arrival of her sons, she reached her stepson Sandy Cory at his home in San Francisco. Sandy and his family had missed the anniversary party for Cory Publishing because both Maggie and Alex had the chicken pox, but Sandy insisted that they were past the worst part and already starting to scar, and that he would be on the first available flight to Maine to be with Rachel and Mac, though his wife Blaine would be staying home with the kids.

Then she got Evan Bates on the phone. Evan was shocked to hear of Mac's heart attack and vowed to Rachel that he would do whatever she and Mac needed him to do at Cory Publishing to keep things going while Mac recovered. It calmed Rachel slightly to hear Evan talk that way, to hear the complete conviction in Evan's voice that Mac would recover from this and be back in his office in a matter of time.

Her next call was to Felicia, who was horrified when she heard the news, and wanted to come to Maine, but Rachel managed to talk her out of it by reminding Felicia that she had just gotten out of jail after two months and had a lot of catching up to do with her own husband, and telling Felicia that Jamie and Matthew were en route to Maine to be with her and Mac, while Cass would need Felicia more than ever in the wake of the revelation that Nicole had killed Jason Frame and their breakup and canceled wedding. She promised to keep Felicia updated, and Felicia promised to pray for Mac and Rachel both and take care of Cass.

Rachel then thought to call her sister Nancy in Arizona, but she got Nancy's answering machine, and she didn't want to leave the news that Mac had had a heart attack and was fighting for his life in a hospital in Augusta, Maine on Nancy's answering machine, so she hung up without leaving a message.

After failing to reach Nancy, Rachel had run out of people to call, and Jamie and Matthew hadn't arrived yet. Having nothing else to focus on now, her fears took over, and she sank down in a chair in the cardiac care waiting room, her mind racing ten thousand miles an hour.

What if the last time she kissed Mac was the last time she would ever kiss Mac?

What if the last time they made love was the last time they would ever make love?

What if this was where their life together ended, in this hospital in Maine?

Unable to sit still, Rachel jumped to her feet and began pacing the length of the waiting room. She was in the middle of her third turn around the room when she realized someone else needed to know about Mac's heart attack, someone Rachel hadn't spared even one thought for in these past frantic hours...until now.

Striding to the phone on the desk in the corner, the elderly volunteer having gone home maybe minutes or maybe hours ago, Rachel didn't know, because time seemed endless to her, alone in this waiting room in this hospital, Rachel picked up the receiver, willed her fingers to stop trembling, and punched '1' for long-distance before adding the familiar area code and seven-digit number.

An answer came on the second ring. "Hello?"

"Iris," Rachel said, taking a deep breath as she searched for the words to tell Iris about Mac's heart attack.


	5. Diagnosis: Triple Bypass Operation

"Rachel?" Iris was dumbfounded. It's not as if she and Rachel had ever been close, or friends. They barely tolerated one another, and since Rachel had discovered Iris was behind the attempted hostile takeover of Cory Publishing the year before, Iris was persona non grata at both the house and the office...although that was Mac's doing, not Rachel's, but given their tempestuous history, Iris couldn't imagine Rachel not supporting Mac completely in cutting Iris out of his life. So what in the world was Rachel doing calling her on the phone at nearly ten o'clock at night, Iris wondered?

"Yes," Rachel said. A long pause ensued, during which Iris thought maybe the connection has been lost. "Iris," Rachel said again. "There's no easy way to say this, so I'm just going to say it. Your father and I are in Maine for a vacation, and Mac...He had a heart attack tonight. A bad one."

All of the breath whooshed out of Iris's lungs, and she sank down on her sofa, having gone suddenly boneless. "Daddy?" Iris asked, thinking there had to be some mistake but in the next instant realizing it wasn't a mistake. Rachel may have always hated Iris, and the feeling was mutual, but Rachel was not malicious enough to lie to Iris about something like this. "Oh god...Daddy. How bad is it?"

"It's bad," Rachel said. "I don't know anything yet. They're still running tests." Then Rachel confessed the one thing she hadn't confessed to anyone else in any of her other phone calls. "Mac...he flatlined in the helicopter. We were in Eastport and the hospital there wasn't equipped to treat him, so they flew us to Augusta, and when we were in the air, Mac flatlined. They had to use the paddles to bring him back."

"But they brought him back?" Iris asked urgently, fearfully. "He's alive?"

"Yes, he's alive," Rachel said, "but he's in critical condition. I wish one of those damned doctors would come out here and tell me **something**. I wish they would let me see him, let me be with him. I wish Jamie and Matthew and Sandy would get here. I wish this was just some nightmare, and I would wake up in bed next to Mac any second now."

Iris swallowed hard, failing to dislodge the lump in her throat. "I would come there, but that would only make things worse for Daddy, and I've done enough of that lately."

Rachel was surprised to hear Iris admit that. In her experience, Iris had never been that self-aware. Before she could stop herself, Rachel said, "There is something you can do for Mac, though, Iris."

"What?" Iris asked anxiously. "I'll do anything, Rachel, absolutely anything."

"You can keep things going at Cory Publishing," Rachel said.

The silence that followed had Rachel thinking the connection had been lost. "Daddy made me pack up and leave," she reminded Rachel. "He gave my office to Amanda."

"Amanda has enough trouble with the journalistic side of things," Rachel said, finally admitting aloud what she and Mac both knew but hadn't yet been able to give voice to regarding Amanda's true abilities in the family business. Sandy had always had a knack for it, having been successful in both Bay City and San Francisco. Jamie, before medical school and his career as a doctor, had been good at the business side of things when he had worked at the company, and had also had a novel published when he was barely past college age. Matthew had a job in the mailroom waiting for him whenever he wanted it, but Rachel and Mac had already agreed they weren't going to push him into working at Cory Publishing. Jamie had started out there but had found his true passion in medicine. If Matthew started at Cory but ultimately chose a career in some other, completely unrelated field, like Jamie before him, he would have their blessing, just as Jamie had. Amanda had enough problems writing for _Brava; _after all, they weren't that far removed from her getting herself kidnapped by Dustin Trent and threatened by the owner of Video Match, and Sam and Evan had had to go after her and rescue her from Trent, and Evan had ended up taking a bullet meant for Amanda when Amanda was too stupid to throw Trent's gun in the lake after Sam had disarmed him and punched him out. Trent had gained his feet, retrieved his gun, and taken aim for Amanda, and it was only Evan jumping in front of her that had prevented her getting shot in cold blood. Thankfully the bullet went through Evan's shoulder, and he wasn't seriously hurt. Evan, with his MBA from Harvard, was a brilliant businessman, but he couldn't keep Cory Publishing running singlehandedly. Mac would be recovering, please God, from this heart attack and possibly surgery. Rachel would be by his side every step of the way. Sandy had a life and a career in San Francisco, and it wasn't fair to ask him to uproot Blaine and their kids to come back here for the next few (or several) months. Jamie was established as a doctor now, Matthew had just completed his freshman year of college and hadn't even taken that mailroom job yet, and Amanda wasn't up to the challenge. That left only Iris.

"You can use my office. I don't know when I'll get back there," Rachel said. "Mac built the company from the ground up. Evan Bates is capable, but he can't do it all on his own, Iris. Sandy is settled in San Francisco, Jamie is settled at the hospital, Matthew is too young, and Amanda's not up to it. You're a brilliant businesswoman, Iris. Between the two of you, you and Evan can keep everything running smoothly until Mac comes back." She had to believe that Mac would come back from this heart attack. The alternative was too bleak and too horrible for her to even contemplate.

"You're really serious," Iris realized, shocked.

"Yes," Rachel said.

"Why are you doing this?" Iris wanted to know. "Why are you trusting me with this responsibility, Rachel? You know what I did. You were the one who found me out in the first place. I would have thought you'd be thrilled when Daddy cut me out of his life and banned me from the office and the mansion."

"I'm not in the habit of being thrilled when my husband is emotionally shattered," Rachel replied. "You hurt him badly, Iris. But for all of our differences and arguments down through the years, we have one very important thing in common: we both love Mackenzie Cory more than anything in this world. When you came back into our lives last fall, I know that you could tell I wasn't exactly thrilled that you were back in our midst. But your return made Mac so happy.

"And we have something else in common besides our deep, abiding love for Mac: you and I are the two people in this world who have hurt him worse and more deeply than anyone else ever could. I have never regretted the times I was so careless and reckless with Mac's love, the selfish, hateful, hurtful things I said and did to him, even when I was cutting off my own nose to spite my face, more than I do at this very moment. But all the times I flouted his love, and completely disregarded him and his feelings and our marriage entirely, no matter how long it took or what we had to go through to get there, Mac always forgave me, Iris. He forgave me because he loves me that much. And even though he knows now that you were 'The Chief,' even with all the hell he, and the whole family, and the company, went through last year because of your attempted hostile takeover, he still loves you, Iris, very much. He wouldn't be so hurt if he didn't love you so much. And one day, I know that he'll forgive you too."

Iris was crying now. "I just hope and pray that I get the chance to make this all up to him," she said tearfully.

"You can start by going back to work at Cory Publishing," Rachel said firmly.

"You're going to tell Daddy you asked me back?" Iris asked.

"Of course not!" Rachel snapped. "Not now. Not until the time is right."

"I'll do it," Iris said.

"I'll call Evan as soon as we hang up and let him know you'll be back at work Monday," Rachel replied. "And I'll keep you informed as to how Mac is doing."

"I appreciate that," Iris replied. "I won't let you down, Rachel. And I won't let Daddy down. Not again. Not ever again."

"I believe that you won't, Iris," Rachel replied.

They ended the call, and Rachel called Evan back. He was surprised to learn that Rachel had asked Iris back to work. When he had no immediate reply, Rachel asked, "Evan? Are you there?"

"Yes," Evan replied. "I can work with Iris. That's no problem. And like I said earlier, I'll do anything you need me to do to help keep the company running smoothly while Mac is recovering. But Amanda...well, she's not going to like this at all."

"This is not about what Amanda likes," Rachel said sharply. "This is about keeping things status quo at Cory Publishing, and keeping the board and the stockholders from panicking because Mac won't be there for who knows how long now. If Amanda doesn't like it, that's just too bad. She is not qualified to run the company, and you and Iris together are. It's that simple."

"Then Iris and I will hold the fort for you and Mac," Evan said. "And we'll deal with Amanda. You just concentrate on Mac and getting him through this. How is he doing?"

"I don't know anything yet and it's really starting to make me angry," Rachel said.

Just then, Jamie and Matthew came rushing into the waiting room, and a middle-aged male doctor with a salt-and-pepper beard and bald scalp entered right behind them. "Family of Mackenzie Cory?" he asked.

"That's us!" Matt blurted anxiously.

"The doctor is here, I have to go," Rachel said, not acknowledging Evan's goodbye before hanging up and slowly getting to her feet and crossing the room to stand with her sons. "How is my husband?" she asked.

The doctor, whose name badge read Edwin Camargo, said, "Your husband has suffered a massive heart attack, Mrs. Cory. The tests revealed that his coronary artery is 90% blocked, which caused the myocardial infarction. He's stable enough now that we can operate, and there's no time to lose. We're taking him in for a triple bypass operation immediately."

"I want to see him," Rachel insisted. "I have to see him before the surgery."

Jamie spoke then. "I'm Mac's stepson, Dr. James Frame. Cardiology is not my specialty, but has there been damage to the heart muscle?"

Dr. Camargo then launched into a technical explanation that only Jamie could follow. Matt studied his mother critically, and he could see that Rachel was trying desperately to keep it together when what she really wanted to do was scream and cry and rail at the heavens, and that underneath it all, she was terrified, more terrified than she had ever been in her entire life, that Mac wouldn't survive this operation, that she, their whole family, would lose him. Matt knew that his mother was a survivor, but losing Mac was something that none of them had ever given any thought to, and he didn't know how Rachel would function if Mac didn't make it through this.

"He's being prepped for surgery as we speak, and our top cardiothoracic surgeon, Dr. Rickelman, will be performing the procedure," Dr. Camargo said. "You can have one minute, Mrs. Cory. I'm afraid your sons will have to wait here."

"Go to him, Mom," Matt urged, praying that seeing Mac would help Rachel.

"We'll be right here," Jamie promised. He leaned in and said something to Dr. Camargo then that neither Matt nor Rachel could hear. The doctor nodded and said of course he could do that, and then asked Rachel to follow him.

Mac was lying on a gurney behind a curtain, hooked up to several machines, with tubes and wires protruding from all over his body. He had oxygen tubes in his nose, and Rachel tried to reassure herself by studying the heart monitor. Mac's heart was beating. It was working harder than it needed to, but it was beating. He was alive.

The lights were dim in the cubicle, and Mac's eyes were closed. The heart monitor emitted a steady _beep beep beep beep, _and Rachel struggled to retain her composure. She had seen Mac in hospital beds before throughout their years together, after Janice Frame had poisoned him; after he had been shot trying to save Sandy and Jamie from kidnappers who had taken them for the ransom money; after he was found following his plane crashing in the Canadian wilderness; after his stroke five years ago, when Jamie found him unconscious and unresponsive at his desk at the office and they rushed him to Bay City General. Mac had survived all of those things, and when he was shot, it was in the chest.

Needing to touch Mac, Rachel stroked his forehead gently. He stirred slightly, sighing, and mumbled, "Rachel?"

"I'm here, Mac," she said softly. She reached for his hand, nearly knocking the pulse-ox monitor off his finger in the process, but his fingers fumbled until they found hers. "I'm right here. You're going into surgery in a minute. And the boys are here. Jamie and Matthew, and Sandy's on his way. We all love you so much, Mac. I love you with everything in me."

Mac fought to open his eyes, which were glassy and dulled by the pre-op sedatives and the pain Mac still felt in his chest which, thankfully, was not as intense as it had been at the inn. "I love you, Rachel. Always. Forever. Love you," Mac said.

Rachel choked back a sob. "I'll be waiting for you, darling. We'll all be waiting for you."

"Be all right," Mac said. "I will. 'Nother twenty-five years wi' you."

The orderlies pulled the curtain back to transport Mac to the OR. "Mrs. Cory, it's time," one of the orderlies said kindly.

Rachel bent over Mac even as the orderlies began preparing him to move and kissed him ever so gently on the lips. He briefly responded before slipping into unconsciousness once more. "I love you, Mac," she whispered in his ear. "Always. Forever. Love you." Then she stood up.

She followed them out of the cubicle and watched them wheel Mac down the corridor to the OR. She stood there until they turned a corner and she couldn't see him anymore. She then returned to the waiting room, where Jamie and Matthew were sitting side by side in the uncomfortable plastic chairs. They both sprang to their feet when they saw her and rushed to her side. "They just took Mac down for surgery," Rachel said. "I got to see him, though. I got to tell him I love him, and that the two of you are here and Sandy's on his way and we'll all be waiting for him."

"Did he say anything, or was he too out of it?" Matt asked anxiously.

"He told me he loves me, and said that he would be all right," Rachel replied.

Jamie's right hand was clenched into a loose fist, and he looked at Matthew then. Matthew nodded and dug into the right front pocket of his blue jeans, pulling out a gold chain necklace. Rachel recognized it as one of hers, but the last time she'd seen it, it had been in her jewelry box at home. Matthew held up the chain and Jamie extended his now-open hand to reveal Mac's wedding ring resting in his palm. "I grabbed this from your jewelry box at home," Matthew explained. "I thought since Mac can't wear his wedding ring during the surgery, you'd like to wear it."

"And I thought it was a great idea Matt had," Jamie added, "so while you were back there with Mac, I asked the nurse for his wedding ring for you to wear." Jamie took the chain from Matthew, slipped Mac's wedding ring onto it, and then carefully fastened the chain around Rachel's neck.

Rachel looked down and saw Mac's wedding ring dangling from the chain, just above her heart, and was instantly whirled back in time to the day she had put this ring on his finger, the tears of joy in her eyes and her voice as she looked into his deep blue eyes, which were sparkling with love and joy...

_"Mackenzie, I, Rachel, give you this ring as a symbol of my love. All that I am and all that I have, I give to you. This is my solemn vow."_

And that was the moment, with her sons around her and her beloved husband having open-heart surgery to keep him alive and the ring she had given Mac on their wedding day six years ago and all of the phone calls made and nothing to do now but wait and pray, that the adrenaline that had fueled her through getting Mac help, through the helicopter ride to Augusta and the phone calls to tell everyone she could think of and make decisions about the business and about Iris and Amanda, completely dissolved and was replaced by an insidious, deeply rooted fear like no fear Rachel had ever known before. Janice Frame coming at her with a knife after leaving Mitch to bleed from a stab wound on the patio while Mac lay, barely conscious, with excessive amounts of poison, in his system on a chaise lounge behind them was nothing compared to this. She had been able to fight Janice off, to fight for Mac. She couldn't fight anyone tonight. She couldn't take action, and Rachel was not used to not taking action, especially when the action was on behalf of her loved ones.

Rachel sank to her knees on the floor and began to sob in earnest. Jamie and Matthew were on the floor with her in an instant, and four strong arms enveloped her as she wept uncontrollably. The arms Rachel most wanted and needed enveloping her were in an operating room right now, though.

Jamie and Matt exchanged a look over Rachel's head. They had both seen their mother upset before, of course, and had seen her cry before, but never like this. They understood her fear, felt it themselves, but Rachel needed their strength and comfort now. They had both shed some tears on their flight to Maine, but seeing Rachel so upset started Matt's tears again, and finally even Jamie gave up the fight to keep some semblance of composure, and mother and sons clung to each other and had themselves a good, long cry over the man they all loved, the man who was the center of each of their worlds.


	6. Life Suspended

By the time Rachel had exhausted her first wave of tears, and Jamie and Matt had recovered themselves as well, Sandy had arrived, and when he saw everyone drying their tears, the look of anxiety in his eyes morphed into one of naked fear. "No," Jamie hastened to assure him. "No, no, Mac's fine. Well, I mean, he's in surgery. We don't know anything yet. We're just..."

"Scared," Matt finished. "And worried. And in a kind of emotional freefall."

"Exactly," Jamie agreed.

The anxiety returned to Sandy's eyes, but he still visibly relaxed at Jamie's reassurance that Mac was still alive. He exhaled a deep breath, then said, "Thank God. Have you had any updates?"

"Not yet," Matt replied, rubbing his sweaty palms on his jeans to dry them yet again.

"I hate the circumstances, but I sure am glad to see you, Sandy," Jamie said. Sandy was one of his oldest friends, and Sandy had claimed Jamie as his brother long before Jamie had accepted that Sandy was indeed Mac's long-lost biological son and had embraced him as both brother and friend. Now Jamie crossed the room, and the brothers hugged. After hugging Jamie, Sandy came over and gave Matt a hug; Matt had been in preschool when Sandy and Blaine and their kids had moved to San Francisco, so they didn't really know each other very well, but that was about to change.

After letting go of Matt, Sandy regarded Rachel. "How are you holding up?" he asked before enveloping her in a big hug. Rachel accepted the hug, but couldn't stop the pangs of raw hurt that sliced into her heart like jagged knives when she realized that, now that he was nearing forty, Sandy's build had become more like Mac's than ever before. Although she knew Sandy meant to comfort her with his hug, all it really did was serve to remind Rachel that the arms she wanted around her were on an operating room table right now and unable to take away the fears that were trying to eat her alive.

"I just want him to be all right," Rachel said as she stepped back, out of Sandy's arms.

"That's what we all want," came another voice from the doorway. Four heads turned to look and four pairs of eyes widened with surprise when they saw the owner of the voice standing there, holding a cardboard tray laden with coffee and food: Rachel's sister Nancy McGowan.

Rachel blinked, confused. "Nancy?" she asked. "I tried to call you a while ago, but I got your machine."

"I was on my way here," Nancy replied, entering the waiting room, setting the tray on the table next to the stack of dog-eared, long-since-current magazines, and putting an arm around her sister's shoulders. "Mom called me the second she hung up from you." She glanced over at Jamie and Matt, who were standing a few feet away, where Sandy now joined them. "She had me on the phone before Jamie and Matt had even left the house. I was on the first flight out of Phoenix. Changed planes in Chicago, landed in Augusta" here Nancy glanced at her watch "forty-five minutes ago, checked in at the hotel down the street, got the food, spoke to the head nurse on duty, and here I am." Nancy then turned back to the tray, picked up a cup of coffee and a sweet roll, and handed them to Rachel. "Eat and drink, or we'll have two patients in here instead of one," she ordered.

Rachel cracked her first smile since dinner. "You sound like Mom," she said fondly.

"A few years ago, that would have made me mad," Nancy replied, "but now I take it as a compliment."

"That's how I meant it," Rachel said. "I ate dinner."

"Rachel, it's almost 3:00 in the morning. You had to have dinner at least six hours ago," Nancy pointed out. "You need to keep up your strength."

To pacify Nancy, Rachel took a bite of roll and followed it with a couple of swallows of coffee, but she didn't taste it. "You said you checked in with the head nurse?" she asked.

"Yes," Nancy said. "Mac is still in surgery, and everything is going well. Totally textbook."

"The nurse told you that?" Jamie asked, somewhat skeptically.

"Oh, come on, _**Doctor **_Frame," Nancy said, turning her gaze fully on her oldest nephew, who was fifteen years her senior, as she emphasized his title. "You know that the nurses in a hospital always know exactly what's going on, and ninety-five percent of the time they know before the doctors. I simply informed the head nurse that I'm Mackenzie Cory's sister-in-law, and a cardiac care nurse in Phoenix, and asked for an update. She was happy to be of help."

Jamie shook his head and smiled. "Good point, Nurse McGowan." He took four strides to cross the room and hug Nancy. She hugged him back.

When Nancy released Jamie, she hugged Sandy and then Matt. "There's plenty for everyone," she said, motioning to the tray of coffee, rolls, and sandwiches she had picked up at the nearby all-night diner. All of the men took coffee; Sandy picked up a roll as well, while Jamie took a peanut butter sandwich on white. Matt only took coffee and toyed with the cup after taking a couple of sips that he couldn't even taste.

Everyone fell silent now, absentmindedly sipping their coffee and, for those who were trying to eat, eating their sandwiches. They were all struggling as they waited for word on Mac, each lost in their own thoughts and worries, and the stress and fear and worry combined with the oppressive silence that kept dragging on and on finally got to Matt.

"I remember-" he began, then stopped.

"What?" Nancy asked encouragingly, with one eye on Rachel. Nancy knew her sister well enough to know that Rachel was barely hanging on by a thread right now. Rachel wasn't one given to major emotional outbursts, especially when those emotions were grief and fear. When Carl Hutchins had kidnapped the two of them, Rachel had been stoic throughout the ordeal, much more worried about Nancy than she'd been about herself. Even when Mac had arrived, and Carl had started shooting, Rachel was much more concerned for Mac and Nancy than she was for herself...and she was the one who ended up taking a bullet, which gave her amnesia for months afterward. It took a lot for Rachel to break down, and she tended to do it when she was by herself, only now she wasn't by herself, so she was holding everything inside, and that wasn't good for her.

Banishing the memories of that ordeal, Nancy focused on the present, on trying to give Rachel something to hold onto while they waited for word on Mac. "What do you remember, Matt?" she asked.

Matt shifted his weight from one foot to the other. "I remember when Mitch came back from prison." He bit his lip, looking at Rachel, who was staring straight ahead, seemingly at nothing. He wasn't sure whether to go on, given the sensitive subject matter, but he had to do something to fill this unbearable silence, and it had been the first time he had truly realized the depth of Mac's love for him, and the depth of Mac's love for Rachel. "You and Mac argued about him a lot. He kept coming around to see me, and looking back now, I can see that he wanted you back too, Mom." Rachel said nothing, but Matt could tell by the subtle changes in her body language that she was listening. "I was in the hall outside your bedroom, and you two were yelling at each other. You didn't know I was out there. Mac was really upset. Fearful, I guess. But I was only twelve then and I didn't know everything yet. When it seemed like you'd gotten to a stopping place in your argument, I knocked on the door, and Mac barked at me to come in. I just wanted to make things better. I always hated it when the two of you argued. I still do," he admitted somewhat sheepishly. "I said that the problem was that Mac loved you, Mom, and Mitch used to love you. Remember?"

"I remember," Rachel said dully. She did too. She remembered that as one of way too many arguments she and Mac had had over Mitch Blake.

"And I was feeling guilty then, too, about wanting to get to know Mitch," Matt continued. Everyone was listening to him now. "Mac told me I had nothing to feel guilty about, and nothing to worry about, and that I was right about the problem. And you and Mac had been arguing over that picture Mitch took of you and me when I was a baby, remember, Mom? I asked to see it, and you gave it to me. I hardly had any hair at all because I was only a few months old. You said that you had an errand to run...you and Mac were going out that night, to some party or something, I forget where...and you hurried off to finish getting ready, and when we were alone, Mac told me that I was a terrific guy. I told him he's a terrific guy too.

"And then when I found out everything and I didn't take it well, I lashed out-"

"Because you are your mother's son," Rachel said, looking at Matt intently now.

"Yes, I am," Matt said proudly. "Mac...Dad," he amended, for it was what he had grown up calling Mac, and he had made up his mind in this moment that he would resume calling Mac, the man, the father, who raised him and loved him from the moment he was born "Dad," the second he saw him again. "Dad was the one who held my world together. He was the one that I finally broke down in front of, that I finally admitted to that I couldn't get through this on my own, and he asked if I would let the family help me. And that was when I finally began to heal."

"They broke the mold when they made Mackenzie Cory," Jamie said. "I remember when I was going through some serious growing pains, trying to figure out who I really was, my place in the world, my identity as an individual. I'd been through a lot of rough stuff," he glanced meaningfully at Sandy here, since Sandy and Rachel were the only ones who knew the whole story of those difficult months, and Sandy knew firsthand the burden of having Cecile for a wife, since Cecile had divorced Jamie and married Sandy, and Jamie didn't feel like going into all of that now. "At the end of it, I felt like I needed to get away from everybody and everything. I moved out of the house, I quit working at Cory Publishing, I cut myself off from everyone in the family. I told them what I was going to do before I did it, but I asked them not to come and see me or call me while I was figuring things out.

"The one person who disregarded that was Mac." Rachel looked at Jamie, surprised. She had never known this until now. No one had, except Jamie and Mac. "He came to see me, and he said that he understood what I was trying to do, but he was afraid, because of the mistakes that he had made, that he had lost me forever." Jamie got up then, from the arm of the chair he was perched on, and crossed the room, sitting down next to Rachel. He took both of her hands in his, and made her hold his gaze. "Mac told me that day that one of the happiest moments of his life was the day he married you for the first time, Mom."

The trace of a memory flitted across Rachel's mind then, Mac showing her an album of pictures of them together when she had amnesia, caused by one of Carl Hutchins' errant bullets. He had showed her their portrait, taken after their first wedding. She had laughed at herself, at the suit she wore to marry him in, but Mac earnestly insisted that she was beautiful, absolutely gorgeous...

_"I'm sorry," Rachel said apologetically, and she did feel badly for hurting this man who had been nothing but kind and patient with her since she woke up, adamantly, sometimes even angrily, insisting that she didn't know him, didn't remember him, didn't remember loving him or marrying him or having children with him or being his wife for many years. "I know it's me, but I-I just don't remember any of it."_

_Having been on the receiving end of similar pronouncements for the past few months, Mac took this one in stride. "I'm sorry," he apologized now. "That was the happiest day in my life." He said it in a way that somehow managed to be both matter-of-fact and fervent at the same time, and Rachel knew that Mac meant this as an incontrovertible fact: the day they first married was the happiest day of his life. _

_She looked from Mac back to the portrait of the two of them, standing side by side, cheek to cheek, with beaming smiles, Mac, his arms around her waist, looking debonair in a navy blue suit and deep burgundy tie, herself in a white satin jacket and blouse, a burgundy sash matching Mac's tie around her waist, and a long black skirt, holding a small bouquet of daisies and blue bells, radiating a happiness, a peace, and a love that she loathed herself for not remembering feeling. "Look at her," Rachel said, though she was referring to herself. "She really loves him, doesn't she?"_

_"And he loves her," Mac replied, "more than his own life." Their eyes met again above the photo album, and Rachel saw the earnestness, the aching, the yearning for her to remember him and remember their love, to know it the way he knew it. _

Jamie had seen Rachel retreat into a memory when he mentioned her and Mac's first wedding, and he gave her the time she needed to bask in that memory, which, in reality, wasn't even two minutes. When he had Rachel's attention again, he continued, "And he told me that one of the things that made him happy was knowing that in marrying you, he got to have me for a son. He told me he was so proud to become my father, and that I was a wonderful son, and always have been. He has never referred to me as his stepson, always his son."

"Me too," Matt realized aloud then.

Jamie looked at Sandy now. "Mac told me that day that he wouldn't deny he was ecstatic to find out that you were his biological son," he said. "But it wasn't about DNA. There were a lot of reasons, not the least of which was that on two separate occasions, with no regard for your own safety, you saved my life."

Sandy nodded, remembering himself. "You were the first friend I made when I came here," he said, "long before I had the courage to tell Mac who I really was, long before he figured it out for himself. And he talked about you all the time, before he knew who I was, and it was always 'my son Jamie.' You were writing back then, and when I first knew you, I actually thought you used 'Frame' as a pen name because of Cory Publishing. You felt like my brother long before you or Mac ever knew that you and I **are** brothers, Jamie. And you've been my best friend, other than Blaine, of course, right from the start. I saved you because I loved you as my brother and my best friend. You being Mac's son too was just serendipity."

"Dad has always loved all of us," Matt reflected, and Jamie noticed that Matt was referring to Mac as 'Dad' again, but said nothing. "DNA truly doesn't matter to him."

"That's what he said to me that day," Jamie said. "Sandy and Amanda...Iris...they're the children of his blood, but Matt, you and I are no less his children, because we are the children of his choice, the children of his heart."

Rachel swallowed hard. "That's true," she said. "That's very true. Matthew, the day you were born, Mac was there, waiting in the waiting room. He saw you in the nursery, and then he surprised me by coming to see me. He told me what a beautiful boy you were, and that he was in love with you already. And he told me that he wanted to be your father. I had tried to leave him, to let him go, to divorce him, and as hurt as he was over everything with Mitch, he wouldn't sign those papers. He wouldn't leave. He said that you were his son, and he wanted us to raise you together."

"And you did," Matt said, his voice cracking. He ducked his head and cleared his throat, trying to rein in his emotions.

All Rachel could think was that, yes, they did raise Matthew together, she and Mac...but only after a lot of pain and tears and Rachel being selfish and stubborn and downright stupid and hurting Mac deeply. Iris crossed her mind then, and Rachel knew how she must be suffering, waiting in Bay City for word. She hoped that someone was with Iris now, either her loyal, faithful maid Vivien, or Lucas, even with his shady side and his past with Felicia, because Iris didn't need to be alone right now. Iris must now be feeling what Rachel was: unfathomable regret for lost and wasted time, reckless behavior, and foolish decisions that inflicted deep pain and grief on a man who had only ever loved her and been good to her, even when she didn't deserve his love and his goodness.

Sandy was talking now, and Rachel tuned back in in time to hear him say, "I couldn't believe how nervous Dad was when we were getting dressed. After all, he'd been here before with you, Rachel. He was more nervous than I was! I had to help him with his cuff links, because his fingers were shaking so much that he couldn't fasten them on his own. So I asked him why he was so nervous, since this was your third wedding. He told me that this was the big wedding. Not only was this the biggest wedding you two had ever had, because it was just the two of you in New York for your first wedding, and it was a small family ceremony in the living room for your second wedding, but this was going to be the last wedding. 'Rachel and I are going to be together for the rest of our lives from now on,' he said firmly, 'and this is the wedding we've waited for, for so long and for so many reasons. Everything has to be right, it has to be perfect for Rachel.'"

"It was," Rachel said, fighting a wave of emotion. "It really was."

Seeing that Rachel was close to breaking again, and knowing that she wouldn't want to do that in front of everyone, Jamie said, "And let's not forget what led up to the big, perfect, last wedding: Mac pretending to be John Caldwell so he could be with you when you were recovering after the car accident that stole your eyesight."

"I don't remember that," Matt said with a frown.

"You were in preschool at the time," Jamie pointed out.

"Who is John Caldwell?" Matt asked.

"Mac," Jamie said. "Mom sent him away when he came to see her at the hospital. But he was determined to be with Mom, to be by her side while she was recovering from the accident, so he shaved off his mustache and hired a dialogue coach to teach him how to speak with a believable British accent and pretended to be a man named John Caldwell, because Mom would let John Caldwell come around. He did that for months."

Matt and Nancy, who was in junior high at the time and also not aware of Mac's elaborate charade in order to be in Rachel's life, were both visibly moved. "I remember Mac shaving off his mustache, and he came around a lot," Nancy said, "but I just thought Rachel came to her senses and stopped being so damned stubborn and prideful. I didn't know he went to those lengths."

Jamie and Sandy exchanged a look. "I knew," Sandy said, "but I wasn't really involved. Kinda had my hands full at the time with my own life. And Ada knew."

"Grandma knows all," Matt said sagely. "Jamie, you obviously knew?"

"Yeah," Jamie said with a nod. "And Vivien. She was working for Mom and Mac at the time since Iris was in Texas. But we were the only ones. And we pulled it off."

"Well, we were all rooting for Dad and Rachel to get back together," Sandy said. "How could we not? They belong together. They always have, and they always will."

Jamie burst out laughing then, startling all of the others, except Rachel, who was caught in the grip of the memories of that time, of how John Caldwell came into her life at the lowest point, when she wasn't even certain she would ever be able to see again...of her confusion, wondering if these feelings she was having for John Caldwell meant that she was actually getting over her love for Mac...and the day her sight returned and she discovered that John Caldwell and Mac Cory were one and the same man and that realization struck her so deeply that she trembled when she finally got Mac alone before she told him she could see again, as she realized, for the first time in all the years she had known and loved Mac, through two marriages and two divorces up to that point, just how much, how deeply, how selflessly Mac loved her...and how completely and irretrievably she loved him.

Rachel had missed the others asking Jamie why he was laughing. Jamie, looking as close to happy as he could under the circumstances, said, "I was just remembering the day Cecile found out that Mac was really John Caldwell."

"And you're laughing about that?" Sandy asked. "Knowing Cecile, she used that information in the worst possible way to hurt as many people as she could and cause as much trouble as she could." Though Cecile had once been a bone of contention between them, having both survived being married to her, and having both long since, and very happily, divorced her, Sandy and Jamie could talk about her all these years later, and they spoke about Cecile in the same way that war veterans reminisce about having survived harrowing combat missions together.

"She tried," Jamie said. "She came over to the house-"

"Unannounced, of course," Sandy interjected knowingly.

"Of course," Jamie agreed. "She was going to get Mac good by telling all to Mom...but when she tried to get around Vivien after Vivien refused to let her in the house, Vivien tackled her to the ground and sat on her. She had Cecile pinned to the foyer floor when I got there a few minutes later."

"Vivien _**tackled **_Cecile?" Sandy asked eagerly.

"Like 'Mean Joe' Greene in the Super Bowl," Jamie said.

Now Sandy laughed. "I wish I could have seen that," Sandy said.

"That's my favorite memory of Cecile," Jamie confided. "Trying to squirm out from under Vivien on the foyer floor while Vivien tried to make her eat the Oriental rug. It was beautiful. It was also, unfortunately, short-lived, because when I got there, Cecile was trying to beat Vivien unconscious with her purse. She wasn't doing a very good job of it, but she was making Vivien madder than she already was, so I pulled Vivien off of Cecile to save her, and then Vivien and I had our hands full trying to get Cecile out of there. I don't know where she ran off to, but she didn't find Mom and Mac. They were in the studio. Mom had been waiting for John Caldwell there. Vivien told me that Mom's sight had returned, and by the time Vivien and I got to the studio, Mom had seen Mac and knew he was really John Caldwell, but she hadn't told him yet that she could see. With her back to him, she put a finger to her lips to let us know not to say anything, then the phone rang and Vivien raced off to answer it, and I just stood there, watching as Mom put her arm through Mac's and went for a walk with John Caldwell."

"So you told Dad you could see, right, Mom?" Matt asked.

"Yes," Rachel said thickly as the memory of that moment assailed her so vividly, it was almost as if she was back in that moment, watching herself and Mac all those years ago by the pond on that beautiful spring morning...

_"Rachel, you're trembling!" John Caldwell...really Mac Cory...said worriedly as he reluctantly removed his hands from her shaking shoulders after helping her to sit on the ground beside the pond. _

_"Yes, I suppose I am," she replied. He was still standing behind her, ready to catch her should she faint or fall backward, and palpably anxious that something might be wrong with her beyond her lost eyesight. "Sit," she said. "Sit beside me." She patted the ground next to her. _

_When Mac had sunk down beside her, Rachel turned and began moving her hand over his face, the way she had several times in the past several months, feeling him since she had been unable to see him...only now she could see him again, that mane of silver hair, his mustache long since shaven off and not regrown, his strong jaws, freshly shaven at this early hour, in his beloved oval-shaped face, and his lips, the same lips that had kissed every inch of her body thousands of times. And in that instant, she had to laugh at herself, for how could she have been so...well, so blind? How could she **not** have known, when she was touching John Caldwell's face, holding John Caldwell's hand, over all these months, that it was Mac's face she was touching, and Mac's hand she was holding?_

_But in the same instant, she knew why she hadn't believed John Caldwell was Mac: because she had sent Mac away that first night, only hours after waking up to total darkness and being told that her optic nerves had been damaged in the car accident, and she thought, when Mac didn't call, didn't come to see her, and went through her mother to spend time with Amanda and Matthew, that he had finally given up on her, written her off, let her go and gotten on with his life. _

_And when she changed her mind, after John Caldwell had come into her life, so kind and gentle and solicitous and encouraging; when the man she really wanted by her side was Mac, she mourned his loss and cursed her stupidity and stubbornness and pride, her own fatal flaws that made her send him away in the first place, and went about her therapy and her life and spending time with John Caldwell...missing Mac all the while, and not having the slightest idea that he was right by her side, where she most wanted and needed him to be, and where he most wanted and needed to be. _

_Dear, sweet, beloved Mac. For so long, Rachel had felt that she didn't deserve Mac, didn't deserve his love and devotion. God, her mother and Jamie, and all of Bay City knew that she had done and said some truly horrible, hateful, even spiteful things to him, designed to hurt him. _

_She came to a stunning realization now, sitting there beside Mac, her hand on his face: love was not about being deserving. She had come so far and changed so much from the spiteful, self-involved, manipulative troublemaker she had been when she was younger. She didn't know how to love anyone but her mother, her sister, and her son...and there were times that her mother Ada threw up her hands and declared that she had no idea what to do with Rachel...until Mac came into her life. Somehow he saw the best in her, and he loved her without limit, without conditions, despite the times she said and did things to hurt him as much as she knew how to hurt him. And having that kind of love in her life made her change for the better, because she loved Mac too, hopelessly, desperately, passionately, truly, irrevocably, in a way she had never known she was capable of loving anyone. _

_No, if love was about being deserving, she never would have deserved Mackenzie Cory and his unconditional, unwavering, eternal love. The kind of love that made him masquerade as someone else just to be near her after she lashed out at him for something that was not in any way his fault-her blindness-and forced him to leave her when it was the last thing either one of them truly wanted. _

_She didn't realize she was smiling until Mac, in his John Caldwell accent, asked her, "What are you smiling about?"_

_"Am I smiling?" she asked, staring straight ahead._

_"Yes," he replied. _

_She felt her own smile now. "To tell you the truth, I don't know whether to laugh or cry," she said. "All I know is that it was very important to me that John Caldwell know about this as soon as possible." _

_"Know? Know what?" Mac as John Caldwell asked._

_"You can drop the accent now, John," she said. _

_"My...my accent?" Mac asked, faltering for the first time in all the months of his masquerade. He ducked his head, and Rachel turned to face him now, placing her hand on his cheek._

_"Look at me," she said. They were looking into each other's eyes now, her hand on his face, on his wonderful, beloved face, and she reveled in the knowledge that it was her Mac that she was touching now, her Mac's eyes she was looking into now. "Can't you see what's happened?"_

_They stared at each other for the space of a heartbeat...then another...and another...and another. Rachel dropped her hand from Mac's face, and his expression changed, from one of bewilderment to one of hope. "Oh, please," he whispered. Tears sprang to Mac's eyes; he had never been able to do anything but wear his heart on his sleeve where Rachel was concerned. "Rachel...You can see?" he asked in a half-whisper._

_She had one hand on his shoulder and the hand she had dropped from his cheek rested against his chest in a loose fist. "Yes," she said, her smile growing wider. _

_"Oh, thank God!" Mac exulted, pulling into her arms in a firm embrace. Rachel threw her arms around his neck and closed her eyes, holding tightly to him as she savored the way it felt to know his arms were around her again. "Oh, Rachel." She gave a happy little laugh, and then Mac released the hug, letting his hands fall to her arms, as he rapidly fired questions at her: "When did it happen? I mean, how long? Did it come back gradually? What happened?"_

_"One question at a time!" Rachel exclaimed, still smiling._

_"Well, I'm so excited!" Mac exclaimed. His face softened, the tears he had been keeping at bay coming to the surface again. "Oh, Rachel." He touched his forehead to her jaw for a few seconds, then sat up again. "I'm so happy for you!"_

_They were holding each other's hands now, facing each other again. "It came back gradually, just two hours ago," she explained. "I didn't know what was happening."'_

_"Is it completely back?" Mac asked._

_"Yes, it's completely back," Rachel replied happily. _

_"How do you feel now?" Mac asked._

_"I feel..." Rachel paused to consider for a second, then concluded, "I feel wonderful!"_

_"Who knows about it?" Then he hastily added, "Except me."_

_"Vivien, and I think she's probably told Jamie, and you. I haven't even had a chance to talk to Mom about it yet. She's home with the flu."_

_"Well, you've got to call her, Rachel!" Mac stood, pulling Rachel to her feet at the same time, still holding her hands. _

_"Yes, I know," she said._

_Mac looked down at their joined hands, and then back up at Rachel, anxious again. "Rachel?" he asked cautiously. "You don't hate me for that impersonation? I mean, I was going to go away. You know, I was going to have Caldwell go away so you wouldn't realize what I've been up to, but I never..." He trailed off, and Rachel saw a tear fall from his right eye. "I never thought it was gonna happen like this." He was smiling and crying at the same time now. "Oh, Rachel!" Then he pulled her into his arms again, the need to hold her too great to be denied or ignored even one second longer, so grateful and relieved was he that the eyesight of the love of his life had returned, and that she didn't hate him for his deception. _

_Tears pricked Rachel's eyes too as she clung to Mac, the smile on her face close to becoming a permanent fixture now. She buried one hand in his hair and rested the other on the back of his neck. "It is wonderful, isn't it?" she asked emotionally, and they both knew she wasn't just talking about her eyesight returning, but about the two of them sharing this moment together, holding each other's hands, being back in each other's arms, both of them knowing now that they had gone through this ordeal together after all. _

_Then Rachel had leaned in and quickly kissed Mac, not letting the kiss linger as long as she wanted to, but letting it linger just long enough to feel the familiar zing she always felt whenever she and Mac kissed. "Well, that's the first time I've kissed you without you having a mustache!" she exclaimed. _

_Mac grinned that brilliant, boyish grin he always wore when he felt on top of the world. "Yeah, how 'bout that," he mused. "What do you think?"_

_She considered for a moment, taking a step back to get a good, head-to-toe look at Mac. "Well, I think it makes you look very young and very handsome," she declared. "And I love your hair." He had just had it trimmed that morning, and he wore it parted to the right. "But you don't look anything like that description Vivien gave me."_

_"Well, you know who Vivien was describing," Mac said._

_"No. Who?" Rachel asked._

_"President Reagan," Mac replied. "When you asked her what John Caldwell looked like-"_

_Rachel's burst of laughter interrupted him. "Oh no!" she exclaimed. "She was panicked."_

_"Yeah, until she saw a photo of Reagan on a magazine on the table, so she described him."_

_"Oh, that's a riot. You're much better-looking than he is." She smiled at him then. _

_"Well, thank you," Mac had replied as he put on his jacket. _

Rachel couldn't stand it any longer. She couldn't do this. She couldn't sit here, powerless to do anything to help Mac, facing the possibility of losing him forever. She sprang to her feet and bolted from the waiting room.

"Mom!" Matt called frantically. He started to go after her, but Nancy stopped him.

"Let her go, Matt," Nancy said.

"I can't do that!" Matt exclaimed. "She looks like she's about to break into a million pieces."

"She needs a few minutes alone," Nancy said.

"Alone is the last thing she should be right now!" Matt insisted. He made to leave the waiting room again, to go looking for his mother, but this time Jamie stopped him, physically blocking his path.

"Nancy's right," Jamie said. "Mom breaking down in front of you and me earlier is proof of how close to the limit she is, because she doesn't do that. She never has. I think the only person in her life she's ever broken down in front of is Mac, and she can't do that right now."

"Mom always said that even when Rachel was a kid, she never wanted Mom to comfort her when she got hurt. She'd always go off somewhere alone to lick her wounds in private," Nancy added. "What she needs right now is Mac. But she can't be with him until he's out of surgery."

Sandy, who had been silent up to this point, joined the conversation then. "You're a cardiac nurse, right, Nancy?" At Nancy's nod, Sandy said, "What are Dad's chances of coming back from this?"

"A triple bypass is a fairly routine operation," Nancy said. "And up to now, Mac has been in excellent health. There's no reason to think he won't make a complete recovery, but it's going to take some time, and he's going to have to modify his diet and adopt an exercise routine."

"He'll do it," Matt said confidently. "He'll do whatever he needs to do to get better." He peered over Jamie's shoulder at the open door through which Rachel had fled just a moment ago. "Are you really sure none of us should go after Mom?"

"Did you like having people, even the people you loved, all over you when you first found out the truth about Mitch and the past with Mom and Mac and Janice Frame?" Jamie countered.

Matt reluctantly conceded his brother's point as he sat down again. Nancy rested a hand on Matt's shoulder briefly. "We'll give her a couple of minutes, and then I'll go and check on her. I'm pretty sure I know where she went."

Nancy's hunch, based on the fact that the sign pointing the way to the hospital chapel was on the wall outside the waiting room, was correct. Rachel burst into the chapel, which, thankfully, was deserted, and collapsed into the nearest pew, burying her face in her hands as violent sobs racked her entire body.

A million memories and a thousand fears swirled through Rachel. Though Mac was 25 years her senior, and he had been through medical crises before, most notably being poisoned by Janice Frame and the stroke he suffered a few years later, she had never thought about losing him. She was utterly and completely unprepared to face life without him. She would have to find a way to go on if...if the worst happened, though. Mac would expect it of her, and the children would need her, and the company would have to go on.

"No." Rachel didn't realize at first that she had voiced the word, in a trembling, tear-choked voice. She scrubbed at her face before falling to her knees and looking up at the huge cross hanging on the front wall of the chapel, over the altar. "I know this makes me selfish, but I don't care. Please don't take Mac from me. Not now. I'll never be ready to lose him, but it just can't end like this. Not here, not now. I want more time! We have so much more to do together. I need him, and I love him so very, very much." She started to cry again, down on her knees in the hospital chapel.

Undetected, Nancy watched and listened from outside the door, peeking through the crack that she made in the door when she pushed it slightly ajar.

"Please, God," Rachel begged, "don't take Mac from me. Don't take him away from me. Please. Please."

She continued beseeching the Almighty silently for she wasn't sure how long. Then she felt a hand on her shoulder, and lifted her head, looking to her side to find her sister standing there. "Rach?" Nancy said gently. "Dr. Camargo's waiting to talk to you."

"Mac's out of surgery?" Rachel asked anxiously, jumping to her feet.

"Yes," Nancy said.

Rachel shook off Nancy's shoulder and pushed past her, rushing back to the waiting room with Nancy hurrying after her.

When she reached the waiting room, Jamie, Matthew, and Sandy were all looking at her expectantly. Dr. Camargo looked tired but pleased. "Mrs. Cory," he said, "your husband came through the surgery beautifully. He's in recovery now, but he'll be moved to a private room in a little while, and you can see him then."

"Is he going to be all right?" Rachel asked fearfully.

"I have no reason to believe he won't make a complete recovery, barring any unforeseen complications," Dr. Camargo said.

Rachel's head was spinning, but now it was with joy. Mac had made it through surgery, and he was going to make a complete recovery!

"Thank you," Rachel said, gripping Dr. Camargo's outstretched hand tightly, then turning to hug Nancy, Jamie, Sandy, and Matthew each in turn, laughing and crying. "He's going to be all right. Mac's going to be all right."

"Dad would never leave you without one hell of a fight, Rachel," Sandy said seriously.

"I'll be by to talk to you and your husband both once he's awake and alert, sometime late tomorrow," Dr. Camargo said.

Rachel rubbed at her head, suddenly aware that her head was hurting, probably a combination of stress and hunger. "Where's that food you brought, Nancy?" she asked.

"That was two hours ago, Rachel," Nancy replied. "But we'll go and get you something else."

"'We'?" Matthew asked, since Nancy was looking at him.

"Yes," Nancy said. "We. The diner is just down the street. Rachel, you go and freshen up a bit while we're gone, huh?"

"All right," Rachel said.

"Sandy and I will wait here, Mom," Jamie said.

Nancy and Matt left for the diner, and Rachel, after splashing some water on her face in the ladies' room, found a pay phone and called Iris.

"Hello!" Iris barked the word anxiously, loudly, and fearfully.

Rachel cut right to the chase. "He's all right, Iris. Mac is all right. He came through the surgery beautifully and he's going to make a complete recovery."

"Oh, thank God!" Iris exclaimed before bursting into tears right there on the phone with Rachel. "I've been so scared...so worried...and I know some of it is for selfish reasons, but I honestly don't care. Daddy's really going to be all right!" she said through her tears.

"Yes, he is," Rachel said, feeling her own tears making another return.

"Have you seen him yet?" Iris asked.

"Not yet," Rachel said, "but soon. Listen, I have to call Mom."

"Of course, of course," Iris said.

"You're not alone tonight, are you, Iris?" Rachel asked.

"No," Iris replied. "Vivien's been with me the whole time, and Lucas came by a little while ago and he's still here. Vivien will be so relieved to hear the wonderful news." Iris paused. "Are you alone?"

"No, Jamie and Matthew are here, and Sandy, and my sister Nancy," Rachel replied.

"Good," Iris said. "Neither of us should be alone at a time like this. And Rachel?" She paused before continuing, "Thank you...for calling and letting me know about the heart attack, and for calling again now to let me know that Daddy's going to be all right. I know you can't tell him, but I really am sending him all of my love now. I'll keep things running smoothly at the complex, and I won't let him, or you, down again. I swear it on my life."

"I have faith in you, Iris," Rachel said, for she did have faith in Iris. After all these years, and everything they had been through, Rachel no longer viewed Iris as the enemy, and she did trust Iris to keep Cory Publishing on track in Mac's absence and Rachel's own absence, with Evan's help.

Iris, at a loss as to what to say to that, since, until this very evening, she _**had**_ still viewed Rachel as the enemy, said, "I'd better let you go so that you can call Ada and then get in to be with Daddy."

"I'll keep you posted, Iris," Rachel promised before ringing off. Then she called Ada.

"Thank God!" Ada exclaimed. "I'll start researching diets for cardiac patients first thing in the morning. How are you holding up? Have you eaten?"

"Nancy and Matthew went to get me something now," Rachel replied.

"Oh good, Nancy got there safely," Ada said. "About Iris..."

"Iris already knows, Mom. I called her before anyone else got here." Rachel paused. "And there's something else you might as well know, but you absolutely cannot tell anyone, especially not Mac."

Ada knew what it was before Rachel said a word. "You asked Iris to come back to the company and keep things going while Mac's recovering and you're with him."

Rachel wasn't the least bit surprised that her mother guessed what it was. "Yes," she said.

"I agree, Mac can't know, not yet. But you made a good decision there. It isn't fair to ask Evan to do it alone, and Amanda doesn't have the business know-how. Jamie's a doctor, Sandy's settled in San Francisco, you're going to be with Mac every step of the way through his recovery, as you should, and Matthew hasn't even taken that mailroom job yet. Process of elimination says it has to be Iris. She's got a good head for business. Mac _**is** _going to have to find out eventually that she's running the company in his absence, though."

"Yes, eventually," Rachel said. "We'll deal with that when the time comes. Tonight I just want to be thankful that he's going to be all right, and sit with him as soon as they'll let me."

"Give Mac my love when he wakes up," Ada said, "and Amanda's and Allie's and Stevie's love too."

"I will," Rachel promised. "I love you, Mom."

"I love you too," Ada said. "Call me tomorrow when you get a minute."

"I will." Rachel returned to the waiting room then to find Nancy and Matthew waiting with fresh coffee and a ham and cheese sandwich for her. She ate, and at least now she could taste the food.

Then, at last, she was taken to see Mac. He had not yet regained consciousness, but Rachel took comfort in the beeping of the heart monitor. Mac looked better than he had before the operation, his face no longer pinched with pain, his complexion no longer pale.

She pulled the chair up to his bedside and, mindful of the tubes and wires crisscrossing his body, she carefully picked up his hand, threading her fingers through his. "I'm here, Mac," she said softly. "Right here, darling. You're going to be all right."

When Jamie and Matt peeked in the door thirty minutes later, they found Rachel sitting at Mac's bedside, bent at the waist, her head resting on the edge of the bed, her hand still in Mac's. Knowing what that would do to her back and neck, Jamie left Matt standing guard over their sleeping parents while he went out and made arrangements to get another bed moved into Mac's private room. When the bed was in place, Jamie carefully lowered one of the guardrails, wheeled the bed right up next to Mac's bed, and, with Matt's help, lifted Rachel into the bed. Her hand remained holding Mac's the entire time. Jamie and Matt both kissed first Rachel's forehead, and then Mac's forehead, and then left to meet Nancy and Sandy and head to the hotel across the street.

And the whole night through, Mac and Rachel slept, side by side in adjacent hospital beds, holding each other's hands.


End file.
